A Norse polytheist walking with Sigyn

Part Three (Refusability / Consent)

Refusability / Consent

Deities can come forward with these power dynamics in mind, or with other types of relationships in mind, with varying degrees of refusability / consent. There are some Deities, for various reasons, that can come into a person’s life, Claim them, and the person has an extremely hard time refusing, if they can refuse at all. This has typically been talked about with certain godslaves, but that doesn’t mean that this is always limited to Godslavery. There are also Deities that can come into a person’s life, or be found by the person, and the Deity gradually brings up a power dynamic after there’s been a bit of a start to a devotional relationship.

From what I’ve seen, these types of dynamics have more consent built in for the human. The devotee chooses to enter into the dynamic, or they may refuse and carry on with the devotional relationship as is. It depends on the Deity, but a refusal doesn’t automatically mean that the devotee can never interact with the Deity again, but it is possible that the Deity may back off and want less involvement.

While this may not hold true for all areas of devotional relationships, the advice to treat them like human relationships can be helpful. There can be exceptions, but devotees should err on the side of not falling into those. 1) Devotees are not required to do anything sexual that they do not consent to. 2) Devotees are allowed to refuse any sexual activity they do not want to take part in. 3) Devotees still have the ability to consent to activity.

There’s a theme here, and though saying it once could have been enough, notice that I felt it important enough to mention more than once. While the ability to take part in power dynamics has areas of exception where a Deity doesn’t give a devotee a choice, I think it should be kept in mind that this doesn’t equate to the devotee losing the ability to consent to sexual activity. Deities may not view this in the same way, and Deities can manipulate devotees, but I feel it is important to put forth that Deities being Divine Powers does not excuse Them doing nonconsensual behavior. (Even though I’ve been using ‘Deity’, all of this also applies to Other Powers of whatever sort.) I’m not aware of prevalence, and I do not speak from personal experience, but I am aware that it has happened to some (whether in the context of sex or not, devotional D/s or not).